Fire Dragon Style
Devotees to the Fire Dragon suffer the cruelest of the five training regimens. They learn early on that one must control fire, lest it consume everything in its path. The best-known lesson the Fire Immaculates suffer consists of setting the student on fire. She is forbidden to use anything other than her own willpower to resist the pain as the element she wishes to emulate bubbles her flesh and melts the fat from her bones. She hears the crackling fire and smells her charred flesh, and when she can endure no more, she need only speak before she is doused and healed. In general, Immaculates believe that the longer a student remains silent, the greater a warrior she will be. Fire Dragons ﬁght in a manner as wild and unpredictable as a forest fire, but the Immaculates themselves endeavor to always be in complete control. Their lessons teach them that they are the fire and to lose control would be devastating to their friends and their aims. The signature weapons of Fire Dragon Style are paired short swords, each curved to a claw-like point at the end. Paired short daiklaves serve as the artifact version of these weapons. An Immaculate’s combat with these weapons is ferocious, and the shimmering of light off the blades often reminds observers of the flickering fires of the element behind the style. Immaculate Dragons of Fire become incredibly adept at using their blades for rapid slashing assaults. When one performs a ﬂurry that consists only of attacks with their signature weapons, each attack suffers a multiple action penalty equal only to its number in the progression; i.e., the first attack suffers a -1, the second a -2 and so on. Fire Dragon Style may be practiced in armor. ''' ''FLASH -FIRE TECHNIQUE'' Cost: 1m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 1; Type: Supplemental Keywords: Combo-OK Duration: Instant Prerequisite Charms: None In the dry season, fires can start in the blink of an eye with the merest spark. Nothing is so wet that an Immaculate of Hesiesh cannot set it alight. Moving as quickly as the sudden flame, the Immaculate adds a number of dice equal to his Martial Arts score to his Join Battle action. This Charm may be used to enhance a Join War roll if the character is a solo unit. ''FLAME -FLICKER STANCE'' Cost: Varies; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 2; Type: reflexive (Step 2) Keywords: Combo-OK, Leader, Obvious Duration: Until next action Prerequisite Charms: Flash-Fire Technique Obscuring her form behind the image of a flickering flame and rising smoke, the Immaculate shifts and dances like a candle’s eager flame. Until her next action, each mote she spends (to a maximum of her Essence) increases both her DVs by one. ''SEARING FIST ATTACK'' Cost: 3m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 2; Type: Supplemental Keywords: Combo-OK, Crippling, Stackable Duration: Instant Prerequisite Charms: None Strikes supplemented by this Charm hit very painful pressure points and further increase that red-hot agony with a lick of fire Essence. Such great pain draws the target’s focus inward, away from the temporal world around her. After successfully inflicting damage with a blow supplemented by this Charm, the Immaculate causes such pain that his victim suffers a -1 internal penalty to all actions for the rest of the scene. This penalty comes on top of wound penalties, and additional uses of this Charm have a cumulative effect. ''PERFECT BLAZING BLOW'' Cost: 3m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 2; Type: Supplemental Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious Duration: Instant Prerequisite Charms: Searing Fist Attack A tongue of flame travels from the Immaculate’s heart to her ﬁst or weapon, making one attack burn through an opponent’s defense. An attack supplemented by this Charm automatically hits targets with an effective DV of less than the Immaculate’s Essence, as if the attack’s roll had just enough successes to connect. If the attack roll has enough successes on its own, ignore the results of this Charm. An attack that hits as a result of this Charm is considered to have hit with 0 successes for the purpose of calculating raw damage. ''FIRE DRAGON FORM'' Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 2; Type: Simple (Speed 4) Keywords: Form-type, Leader, Obvious Duration: One scene Prerequisite Charms: Flame-Flicker Stance, Perfect Blazing Blow The Immaculate performs a brief kata and brings her arms together. When she releases the position, a light burst of warm, orange flame erupts from her. While the form is active, her movements are more like those of the fire she emulates, and attacks against her seem to only fan the flames. After successfully activating Fire Dragon Form, the Immaculate increases her Dodge DV by half her Martial Arts Ability. Also, due to the great heat that surrounds her, the Immaculate’s bashing attacks inflict lethal damage. ''FIERY HAND ATTACK'' Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Supplemental Keywords: Combo-OK, Leader, Obvious Duration: Instant Prerequisite Charms: Fire Dragon Form His hand or sword sheathed in flame, the Immaculate tries to cover a foe in that burning Essence. On a successful Martial Arts strike, the Immaculate adds his Martial Arts rating to the damage, and all damage inflicted is lethal. Additionally, the target’s player reflexively rolls (Stamina + Resistance) at a difficulty of the monk’s Essence. Beings with an elemental afﬁnity for Water (such as Water- aspected Dragon-Blooded) add two dice to their Resistance rolls. If the roll fails, the target bursts into flame. Treat this effect as if the victim were standing in the middle of a bonfire. She suffers four levels of lethal damage per action for a number of subsequent actions equal to the attacker’s Martial Arts score. A successful (Stamina + Resistance) roll at difficulty 3 reduces the damage from lethal to bashing on each action, which ignores armor. The flames are magical, despite the entirely normal looks, smells, feelings and screams. Only the end of the Charm or magic (water Essence or magic that speciﬁcally douses flames) can put out the fire early. Otherwise, the poor victim will burn even underwater. ''BREATH OF THE FIRE DRAGON'' Cost: Varies; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Simple Keywords: Combo-Basic, Leader, Obvious Duration: Instant Prerequisite Charms: Fiery Hand Attack Taking a deep breath and calling to rouse the Fire Dragon within her, the Immaculate spits a gout of flame that extends for a number of yards equal to her Essence. Her attack roll is her (Perception + Martial Arts), and she adds a number of automatic successes equal to her Essence. The attack inflicts a number of dice of lethal damage equal to her Essence for every mote the Fire Dragon Immaculate spends on the Charm. She cannot spend more motes than she has dots of Martial Arts. The rolling flame cannot be parried. By expending a point of Willpower, the Immaculate gives the Breath of the Fire Dragon the ability to affect spirits as well as material objects. ''ESSENCE-IGNITING NERVE STRIKE'' Cost: 5m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Simple (Speed 5) Keywords: Combo-OK, Shaping, Touch Duration: Instant Prerequisite Charms: Breath of the Fire Dragon This esoteric attack touches and activates a half-dozen potent chakras, causing the Essence contained within the target to ﬂ are and burn the body from within. On a successful strike, the attack does not inflict normal damage. Instead, the target suffers one level of lethal damage for every mote of Essence in her Personal Essence pool, up to a maximum of twice the Immaculate’s permanent Essence. The damage ignores armor but is otherwise soaked normally. This Charm does not consume the motes involved, but simply uses them as a catalyst for damage. Creatures without Personal Essence pools (such as gods and mortals) are immune to this Charm. ''OVERWHELMING FIRE MAJESTY STANCE'' Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Simple Keywords: Combo-Basic, Emotion, Leader, Obvious Duration: Varies Prerequisite Charms: Fire Dragon Form Fires cause great damage, and they are recognized and respected for their illimitable hunger across Creation. Taking this aspect of the Fire Dragon onto herself as flames swirl about her body, the Immaculate makes her foes afraid to strike her. While the Immaculate maintains the stance, anyone trying to attack her subtracts a number of dice equal to the Immaculate’s Martial Arts from his dice pool when doing so. Anyone who tries to attack one of the Immaculate’s clear allies within a number of yards of the Immaculate equal to the Immaculate’s Essence subtracts half that number (i.e., the Immaculate’s Martial Arts score). While this Charm is active, the Immaculate can defend herself and take other actions. Making an attack or taking a Dash action ends Overwhelming Fire Majesty Stance, as does invoking any non- reflexive Charms or moving more than half her normal movement. Taking any health levels of damage from an attack also disrupts the stance. Once the Charm ends, the effects linger for another three ticks. This Charm's influence is unnatural and costs 3wp to resist for a scene. ''SMOLDERING WOUND ATTACK'' Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Supplemental Keywords: Combo-OK Duration: Varies Prerequisite Charms: Overwhelming Fire Majesty Stance The Immaculate endows a single wound with slow-burning Essence. If he successfully damages his opponent, the wound smolders like a dying fire. On the Immaculate’s following action, the Charm’s victim suffers any post-soak damage again. Soak does not apply to the second instance of damage. ''CONSUMING MIGHT OF THE FIRE DRAGON''''' Cost: 6m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Simple Keywords: Emotion, Leader, Obvious Duration: One scene Prerequisite Charms: Essence-Igniting Nerve Strike, Smoldering Wound Attack This Charm pulls pure elemental flame from the heart of the Elemental Dragon. An Aspect of Fire using this Charm triples the effects of his anima power. For non-Fire Aspects, the Charm allows the Immaculate to use the Fire Aspect anima power at its normal level. Also, anyone viewing the Immaculate, regardless of his aspect, is affected as if by the Overwhelming Fire Majesty Stance, except that the effects last for an entire scene and the Immaculate is free to attack and/or use Charms. Characters who spend 3wp to resist this Charm for a scene also become immune to Overwhelming Fire Majesty Stance.